SITUATIONAL INFLUENCES ON THE SELECTION OF STRATEGIES TO RESIST COMPLIANCE-GAINING ATTEMPTS

This study investigated the effects of situational variables on the likelihood of use of four types of strategies to resist compliance-gaining attempts: identity managing, negotiation, justifying, and non-negotiation. Subjects rated strategies on the probability that they would actually use them to resist complying in each of eight situations, which varied systematically in the level of agent-target intimacy, the consequences to the target-agent relationship of noncompliance, and the rights of the target to resist. Significant second-order interactions of the situational factors were obtained for the likelihood of use of each of the four types of strategies. Resistance message selection was concluded to be based upon an assessment of the relative risk associated with the implementation of a given strategy in conjunction with a particular combination of situational constraints.